Annual charity knit

I'm starting to get backlogged on things I intend to knit, and I'm probably fated to fall a little bit more behind. After all, it's the time of year when I contribute to a particular project, so I need to get cracking on that.

The Red Scarf Project is now accepting donations for this year's collection. I've knit for it for the past three years. I could probably stand to mix it up and not make the same pattern that I have the last two years, but the brainless quality of that pattern is what has been so appealing. Plus, I figure it's a safe design for an unknown recipient.

So, join me this fall in knitting for the Orphan Foundation of America.

For the kids

155 knit dolls--all unique--for charity.

I'm not sure why I like reading stories like this. Regardless, it's more edifying to you than some BS I come up with as a day's content when I don't know what to write about.

Red scarf

Scrunchable Scarf

Yarn: Lamb's Pride Superwash (100% wool; worsted weight)
Colorway: SW01 (Red Wing)
Needles: US 7s
Stitches: 30
Size: 5" wide, 70" long

It's done, it's done!

My contribution to the Red Scarf Project is finally finished. I think it took me a little over two months, which is ridiculous but indicative of the slog that knitting this scarf was.

After being exposed to the cold for a good part of the afternoon at work, I would have never expected to feel up to working on this for a couple hours, yet I was drawn to getting it done and just plowed through what remained. Actually, I knit it longer than I was intending, if that tells you how much I zeroed in on completing it. Maybe my eagerness to finish was because the deadline for sending it looms, maybe it was because I have other projects I'm anxious to start. Whatever the case, I'm glad to have this done.

I messed up and did all stitches in pattern, so this doesn't have a border, so to speak. Does it make a big difference? I don't think so.

I'll snap some better pictures of it tomorrow. In the meantime I wanted to get something posted about this because it's my first FO since the end of September. Let's hope this indicates an the start of an uptick in my knitting productivity.

Just another knitter

These last few months I've worked to keep the content flowing while not knitting, which means pawing through a decent number of knitting-related news stories. There's a lot of repetition in the types of articles. There's the trend piece, the charity knitting report/solicitation, the local yarn shop closure, and the knitter profile, to name a few.

In my Google-fu experience there's nothing particularly exceptional about the 96-year-old woman who has knit over 400 hats for Native American children. It seems like every city, town, and burg across the globe has at least one of these dedicated knitters. But you know, it's actually very heartening to know that there are so many people quietly working away at efforts like this and whose reward is the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile.

The relative ubiquity of these stories in news search engines doesn't diminish the achievements. If anything, it makes such charitable participation seem more attainable for anyone with the needles, yarn, patience, and generosity.

Bear hugs

I've done a little bit of charity knitting since picking up the needles, but I have nothing on a 93-year-old Wisconsin woman who has knit one hundred teddy bears for African children affected by HIV/AIDS. And she's ready to make another hundred. Talk about dedication.

I was caught off guard by how much the story moved me. I know I'm a soft touch when it comes to the heartbreaking stories about the kids who have received the bears, but it's not just that.

I didn't know either of my grandfathers, so my grandmothers, both of whom are gone, hold a special place in my memory. My maternal grandmother died when I was in second grade. One of the most precious things I have to remember her by is a teddy bear she made for me. It was one of my favorite things as a kid.

I'm sure I received other gifts from her in the short time I knew her, but most of those things are forgotten and no longer around. The teddy bear, a product of her own hands, has outlasted everything else. That strikes me as the way it should be.

There's certainly nothing wrong or impersonal about purchased gifts, but to get something that someone took the time to make for you means more, even (or maybe particularly) in the case of the African children who will never know the woman who devoted herself to knit something for them and demonstrate love in action.

To the high seas

Seaman's Cap

Yarn: Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool; worsted weight)
Color: 1233
Needles: US 7 and 8 circulars
Stitches: 102

With all my stitch-twisting troubles in my last hat knitting attempts, I'd forgotten how quickly I can knock out one of these. Per the yarn's gauge I went up a needle size, which made this thing go even faster. I made the hat slightly longer than the others I've knitted because I wish my hat could be pulled down a little more to cover my ears entirely. Since it's headed to the Christmas at Sea program of the Seamen's Church Institute, I imagine a bit more coverage can't hurt.

It's not a flashy piece of work, but it should get the job done. I think the hat is knit pretty well, so it has that going for it too. There's no ladder where the project was joined in the round. I have that problem sometimes, so I'm pleased that it might even be able to pass as a store bought hat. The cable cast on row looks nice and has a good amount of stretch.

I'm half tempted to get started on another one of these hats for myself, but Christmas knitting must resume. Plus, I'm curious to see how my latest yarn purchase knits up in the pattern, assuming I can make sense of or stand to do the star stitch in it. Looking at the pattern again I realize that I may have made the mistake of not purchasing enough yarn--it calls for one and a half to two 100-gram skeins--but we'll see what happens. Sometimes when buying yarn I misremember yardage and skein weight. Note to self: write it down.

An orphan scarf

Scrunchable Scarf

Yarn: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool; worsted weight)
Colorway: 9404
Needles: US 7s
Stitches: 29
Size: 4.25" wide, 72" long

Sundays have become good knitting days for me. I'm getting a lot done--about a foot and a half on this scarf today, for instance--and salvaging some enjoyment from the time spent in front of the TV watching my miserable NFL team.

This scarf has been made for the Red Scarf Project, so it will be packaged and on its way before long. I participated in this charity knitting last year and encourage those so inclined to whip something up before this year's deadline arrives.

The Cascade 220 wool knitted up thick and squishy without being too heavy. The scarf has enough weight to it to give it density, yet it feels fairly light. The pattern looks sleek and, at least to my eyes, more complicated than it really is.

I slipped the first stitch with the yarn in back (if I have that term straight) and knit the last stitch of each row. It doesn't make the same edges face on each side, but I made sure to keep it consistent when I saw this was the case. It still looks good, so I don't imagine anybody is going to notice.

I prefer to make narrower scarves. Most people end up folding wide ones in half anyway. Here you see me and my grizzled jawline taking the scarf for a test drive to demonstrate this preference and reasoning.

(For inquiring minds, it's a long weekend, and I'm lazy and haven't shaved for three days. The alarming amount of premature gray showing up in my facial hair--I'm blaming it on years of acne creams--means I usually don't go unshaven for more than a day. Might as well add that to the premature hair loss too. But no, I'm not growing a beard, just looking scuzzy for the weekend.)